After spending more than a month sorting out financing and searching properties online, we got to the point where if we really wanted to actually do this, we had to actually go back to Cabo to view some of these properties in person. We scheduled a quick trip to Cabo for three short days in July 2019. Jeff Schmidt, our realtor, had finally convinced us to look at other areas besides Ventanas because we might just find something as amazing but for even less money. And he was right!
We had lined up eight properties to view with him and headed off to Cabo, but by the time we arrived, one of them had already sold! Our top three choices were still available:
The “Bungalow” (two bedrooms with den plus rooftop)
Bungalow Kitchen Bungalow Patio
The “Second Floor Condo” (three bedrooms)
Condo Kitchen Condo Patio
The “Two-Story House” (three bedrooms plus rooftop).
Two Story House Living Room Two Story House Patio
Jeff picked us up in the morning and we headed off to view the seven remaining properties. It was interesting to see them in real life versus what we could see in the online pictures. Some were too big, some way too small, some were a little nicer in-person, others we found not quite so nice. After a full day of viewings, Jeff dropped us back at the hotel. We decided to head out to get some dinner and took the time to deliberate the pros and cons and overall suitability of each.
Making decisions…
We quickly eliminated many, including the “Second Floor Condo” that was originally one of our top three. This condo was in desperate need of a lot of repairs, and barely looked like the photos. This left us still with the “Bungalow”, the “Two-Story House”, and a new addition to the top three which was the “Penthouse Condo”.
Penthouse Kitchen Penthouse Patio
After a long discussion weighing the pros and cons of each one, we arrived at the decision that the “Two-Story House” checked off most of the boxes on our wish list. We contacted Jeff and gave him the go-ahead to submit our offer. An hour later, we heard there was already another offer on the property, but we crossed our fingers and went to bed hoping that our offer was better, and we would eventually be the lucky owners of this property.
In the morning we got an update from Jeff. Good news: the other offer was withdrawn! Bad news: they had good reasons to withdraw. Evidently, the inspection report came back showing problems with the water system and termites that the seller was not willing to fix. It did not sound like problems we wanted to take on either, so we told Jeff to withdraw our offer.
Back to the drawing board to determine if we had a runner-up. The “Penthouse Condo” had a floor-plan that we really liked, and it still checked off most things on our wish list. And as a special bonus, this unit had that exact same breathtaking view that the Ventanas condo had! This condo was a bit more expensive than the other properties we were there to view, and we had overheard the agents discussing that there were a few offers in already, so we knew if we really wanted it, we had to go in with an offer that would be better. We figured out the maximum we would be willing to go and gave Jeff the go-ahead to submit our offer.
Then we waited. We stayed in for most of the day as we did not want to miss an email in case we had to react quickly with any counteroffer. With properties selling before we even got here, and offers coming in ahead of ours, we did not want to miss any opportunity. So, we waited. And waited.
Wicked Pizza
We started to get hungry and decided to go out to find something to eat, and as we were just finishing up our very late lunch, we got an email from Jeff – our offer was accepted!! We could not believe it!! No counteroffer, simply Jeff being amazing at his job! We were so excited we were high fiving each other in the pizza place!
We did it! It’s normally a two to three-month process to get everything in place, notarized, filed, etc. in Mexico, so we were looking at a closing date of October 11, 2019. We were on cloud nine as we flew back home to Vancouver after this whirlwind trip, wondering how we were ever going to wait until we could return in October and enjoy our new vacation home!
Up Next: The Problem